Besta small entertainment unit

Dez hacks a floating entertainment unit from the Besta.

“I haven’t really done anything revolutionary here, but I thought I’d share how I used a Besta extension and hung it as a floating entertainment unit. It makes for a nice a clean installation for a master bedroom and gives it a hotel kind of feel. I ran the wires from the TV behind the wall in between studs and cut holes for the wires to go to the AV components in the back of the shelf extension. All in all, it turned out pretty well, not bad for an “as is” item and few hours of work. I’m also planning to add passive lighting to the rear of the TV as well as underlighting for the entertainment unit.”

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Jules IKEAHacker "I am Jules, the engine behind IKEAHackers and the one who keeps this site up and running. My mission is to capture all the wonderful, inspiring, clever hacks and ideas for our much loved IKEA items".

25 Responses to Besta small entertainment unit

Im in the UK, and after a lot of searching it seems that i cant get a suspension rail for love or money. I can see it in the US IKEA site, but there is nothing available in the UK version annoyingly. Soooooo, could some kind soul from the US do me a favour and forward one of these over the pond so i can hang up my cabinets?

@drknam: I’m not the original hacker, but I just finished putting together my Besta, and I’d say from the photo that it’s the black-brown, which oddly enough, isn’t that different from the walnut, but looks much, much better (to my eyes at least.)

I just put my Besta unit together and drilled all the holes (bought a hole saw) for the cables.

I was quite disappointed that when I put my stereo receiver into the besta unit, I discovered that it hangs out the front of the unit by about an inch. I am either going to have to remove the back panel on that side, or do something else. Not sure what yet, but I wish they’d made these even 1 inch deeper.

Looks good! I found this googling the Besta stuff hoping to find someone who owns it. Is the color of yours “black/brown” or what IKEA calls “walnut effect”? I can’t tell from the pictures, and I’m trying to figure out how brown the “black/brown” color really is.

Bestå isn’t my style (I like more round forms) but the hack is defintitely a good one. As an asthmatic person I could appreciate an off-the-floor solution too – cleaning isn’t fun, so the easier the better.

It is looking very sober in view. I have bought LCD but I was confused how to place DVD player & many other things. But this is looking very great. I wanna to have this type of table that is placing within the LCD.Allvira————————Sliding Wardrobe Doors UK

@Peter: It may look high in the photo but it’s hung at counter height (32″ I think) leaving enough room under the cabinet for my Dyson to get under. I matched the height of the counters in the en suite. I think any lower would look kind of funny and be too low for use. Mine also looks higher because I left almost 2 ft between the cabinet and TV and hung the TV higher for better viewing from my very high pillow top.

@Dez thanks for the advice. I’ve looked online for the rail system but I can’t find it. I will have to drop in personally to the store to find it – another excuse to visit IKEA lol. The sacrifices I need to make…

One thing to keep in mind when doing this is that you need to install an outlet box behind the TV. Running the power cord inside a wall is against NEC (National Electric Code) and can dangerous, and may void your homeowners insurance if something were to happen.

@waywardmedic: The cool thing about the rail system is that if your studs are not evenly spaced (and in this example, they were spaced odly), there are enough holes for a variety of stud mounting possibilities.

@Jim G: The speakers are in the TV. This was just a nice way to mount a TV in the master Bedroom. I didn’t want a full fledged entertainment system in front of my bed! I was going to add doors but the PVR is just a hair longer than the depth of the cabinet. I suppose with some fussing it could fit, but I think it looks good the way it is.

I used this same thing for an entertainment center as well – just not mounted on the wall. I too had to drill my own holes in the back for wires but it looks totally smart. Got the big plastic caster wheels for it so I can wheel it out if I have to fuss with re-wiring or if I need to sweep. Flat screen LCD just sits on top. It’s a nice look for not a lot of money. Plus you can add cabinet doors or drawers to the thing too…

I was planning to use this extension in my hallway! I was thinking ’bout hang it on the wall and “dress” it with doors and drawers. I would be able to clean the floor under it and it hoping that it would look good. With these photos, I got a picture of it!

@waywardmedic: I used an Ikea wall rail system ($10 for the rail and hanger), I forgot the name but basically all you have to do is make sure the holes line up with studs and that the thing is level. Then just hang the Besta and secure it with a few more screws into the actual rail. It was easier than hanging kitchen cabinets.

@anonymous: Sorry for hearing about the trouble you had. Hopefully the end result was worth it. I just got lucky finding the unit. The bottom of it is scratched very badly, but no one ever sees the bottom. Whole Besta thing including the hangers was $50.

They were out of this double Besta unit at the Woodbridge store yesterday, so we got three Besta single units yesterday – possibly the single worst IKEA purchase we’ve ever made.

I’m not sure whether IKEA considered that they might be used as part of a home theatre system (I think not, despite advertising it as such), but we ended up drilling our own holes, trimming the shelves and bleeding all over the place by the time we were done setting up the system. Sad. We normally have such good luck with IKEA products.

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